- Have you ever cruised down the overseas highway,
windows down, belting out Jimmy Buffett,
as you head towards Key West?
Maybe you're a landlocked Midwesterner
dreaming of palm trees, piña coladas,
and white sandy beaches.
Have you ever dreamed of that perfect Caribbean vacation
with crystal clear water and the faint hum
of steel drums infused in the night air.
Rather than wait for summer vacation,
I've got the perfect build
to bring island life into your home.
Introducing the Caribbean Garden Tank,
14 gallons, stuffed with macro algae, gorgonians, sponges,
mangroves, scallops, mollies, pipe fish, cucumbers,
and a whole lot more.
Don't go anywhere.
I'm about to teach you how to build one for yourself.
(Caribbean music)
A Caribbean or Caribbean Garden Tank
is a unique biotope with special considerations.
Let's talk sand first.
We used Ocean's Direct Sand from CaribSea.
And we did a much deeper sand bed than usual,
up to two inches in the rear of the tank.
First off, Ocean's Direct Sand will help
to immediately cycle the tank,
and will help create a more diverse biotope.
And in case you have any doubts,
Ryan's Biome series prove that out.
Secondly, the slightly smaller grain size
will help hold the rooted macro algae in place.
It's important to think about
where you want your mangroves and macro algae
to go ahead of time, that way you provide
a deep enough sand bed in those locations
for those rooted plants and algae.
I used about 15 pounds
of the original grade Ocean's Direct Sand
with a two inch sand bed in the rear of the tank
and a one inch in the front.
It's really important that you only open the bag of sand
when you're ready to use it
and do not rinse the sand.
Under the scape, I use CaribSea Life Rock.
I'd recommend picking up the nano kit,
as it's probably twice as much as you're gonna need.
Aquascaping for a Caribbean Garden Tank
is way different than any other sort of reef tank.
The vertical space in this build
will be taken up by the gorgonians and macro algaes,
not by the rock work itself.
And since this IM 14 gallon peninsula
only has 12 inches of water depth,
you'll wanna keep your aquascape as low down as possible.
That being said, it is still important
to have adequate rock work
in order to attach your gorgonians onto.
I used one piece of base rock and one small arch,
and that was it.
I used the bowl to help disperse the water
and I filled it with a fresh batch
of Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt with a 1.026 specific gravity.
I added the water clarifier pouch
and then moved on to the livestock.
First off, a huge thanks to Algae Barn
for providing the mangroves, the copepods,
the phytoplankton, and a lot of the macro algae.
This is my first time with mangroves,
and Algae Barn was super patient with me
and answered all of my questions.
Algae Barn sent us red mangroves,
also known as rhizophora mangle,
which are one of three species native to Florida.
They are relatively easy to care for
when provided with strong light,
but more on that to come shortly.
I buried just the tips of the mangroves
in the rear right corner of the tank.
And then, I used the Neat Aquatics Screen Top Feeding Portal
to thread them through.
Some of the fish are jumpers,
so it's absolutely crucial that you use the mesh screen
that comes with the IM 14 Kit.
You don't need to bury the roots entirely.
Just bury them enough to secure them to the sand bed.
The red mangroves root structures not only look really cool,
but they provide a natural habitat for the livestock.
I'm gonna let you in
on what may be the best kept secret in the hobby,
Seahorse Savvy sells way more than just seahorse,
like seriously, way more.
Everything they sell is seahorse safe.
And don't get me wrong, they breed and sell
some beautiful seahorses.
I know this personally,
because last year I actually set up
a seahorse macro algae tank in the studio
and it was a gorgeous tank.
Seahorse Savvy has the largest selection of macro alga
and gorgonians, at least that I've seen.
And they all come from either the Gulf Coast
or the Caribbean.
On top of all of that, they sell an incredible variety
of unique fish and inverts
that I haven't seen sold anywhere else.
And one more thing to note,
the owner, Alyssa,
just won the 2022 MASNA Aquarist of the Year.
So, yeah, she's the real deal.
Here's everything Alyssa sent me.
And by the way, it was way more than I could use.
So I had to stash some of it in my other tanks.
Three saltwater acclimated green mollies,
rooted mermaid fan macros,
rooted shaving brush macro algae,
rooted pine cone macros,
rooted and non rooted halimeda,
red and yellow, non photos synthetic gorgonians,
purple lace gorgonians, coraline encrusted cerith snails,
scarlet hermit crabs, polka dot hermit crabs,
blue and banded porcelain crabs,
ruby red crabs, pink footed and yellow sea cucumbers,
corky sea finger gorgonians, purple frilly gorgonians,
orange spiny gorgonians, three gold pipe fish,
red encrusting ball sponges, three flame scallops,
gold spot goby, and an ORA gold line goby.
Okay. I didn't videotape all of this,
because I was super engrossed in the aquascaping itself,
but here's how I did it.
First off I temperature acclimated
all the seahorse savvy stuff
in my waterbox frag tank for 45 minutes.
Then I pulled out all of my buckets, both big and small,
and I sorted my gorgonians and macro algaes
by color and size.
Gorgonians don't always play nice together,
so it's important to keep the different species separate
from each other.
I started out with what I thought would be
the centerpiece pieces,
centerpiece pieces, first. (laughs)
The red mangroves in the back right,
the yellow and red finger gorgonians in the center.
Then, I added some tall rooted halimeda
and rooted pine cone macro,
as well as a purple bottle brush to the rear left.
The rooted macros are easy to place,
as you just have to push them into the substrate.
Some of the gorgonians, like the purple bottle brush,
come with a ceramic plug.
I use bone cutters
to remove the lower portion of the plug
and bury the remaining portion in the sand.
For the red and yellow finger gorgonians,
I use the tried and true super glue epoxy super glue method
to attach it to the rock.
From here, I chose the orange spiny gorgonian
and the purple lace gorgonian,
and spread them out so they weren't touching each other.
Then, I filled the left side
with some red spike sphere gracilaria from Algae Barn,
as well as rooted mermaid, shaving brush,
and an encrusting ball sponge from Seahorse Savvy.
I filled in the right side
with a rooted mermaid,
encrusting ball sponge with symbiotic zoas,
shaving brush, non rooted halimeda,
and a corky sea finger gorgonian.
Now that I had all of the gorgonian and mangroves in place,
it was time to add the copepods.
Adding copepods early on
will help your tank avoid the ugly stage,
because copepods eat a ton of diatoms.
For this, I used two bottles of Algae Barnes Galaxy Pods.
I turned the pump off beforehand
and gave the copepods about 30 minutes to settle in
before turning the pump back on.
Then, I put the three flame scallops in the front left,
but they'll move around until they're happy.
I turned the lights off
and then added the three mollies, the three pipe fish,
the gold spot goby, and the gold line goby.
Then, I place the three cucumbers
on the rock work near the front of the space
where there's a lot of flow for them to capture food,
and also just a great viewing location for me.
For the cleanup crew,
we have the mollies themselves,
which will peck at the algae,
the scarlet and polka dot hermits,
ruby red crabs, and sarath snails,
which are all great scavengers.
And then we add to the porcelain crabs,
which will help keep the water column clear
and are super cool to watch.
It's really important to run activated carbon
on this Caribbean Garden Tank at all times.
In fact, I'd recommend changing it out daily
for the first few days and then once a week,
during your water changes.
I added a bag of Marine Pure Biospheres
to the rear filtration chamber
that had been sitting in my water box frag tank
sunk for a few months.
It's absolutely crucial that I did this,
because it will immediately cycle the tank,
which is really important
when you're adding this much livestock all at once.
In fact, I tested the ammonia levels after three days
with my brand new Hanna Ammonia checker,
and it was a whopping 0.03 parts per million.
I didn't add GFO or granular ferric oxide on day one,
but by day three, my phosphate levels had spiked to 0.27.
So I did add a small baggy.
You will also likely need GFO at some point,
due to the heavy feeding the livestock will require.
Then I added a reef breeder's prism auto top off unit
and connected it to a bucket,
which is hiding in the footrest.
The primary light for the tank
is the Aquaillumination prime 16 HD
with the 12 inch flex arm.
The mangrove light is the EcoTech Radion XR15 freshwater
with the premium hanging kit.
Why two lights?
Because the mangroves are tall and require intense lighting,
while the macro algae and photo synthetic gorgonians
require much lower light.
Using my par meter,
I adjusted the lights to get 25 to 65 par in the tank itself
and a much more intense light for the mangroves at 600 par.
The Caribbean garden is not a tank for a ton of blue light
as the macro algaes require a much lower kelvin.
Here are the settings for the AI prime.
Lights on at 7:00 AM.
Ramped to full intensity at 11:00 AM,
which is 6,000 Kelvin at 28%,
which uses only eight watts of total power output.
Keep that intensity until 4:00 PM
and then a slow ramp down to lights off at 8:00 PM.
For the XR15 Freshwater light,
I use the planted sunrise preset
with a max intensity of 25%.
Sunrise at 8:00 AM and sunset at 6:40 PM.
I'm using the Ink Bird Temperature Controller
set to 78 degrees with a variance
of plus or minus 0.5 degrees.
I picked up a WiFi power outlet from Amazon,
which is super handy when doing your water changes
and feeding your tank.
And lastly, I highly recommend
adding a VCA Random Flow Generator Nozzle.
I believe it's the three quarter inch size
to replace the flared nozzle the IM14 comes with.
Gorgonians need a ton of flow
and when you turn the Mighty Jet Return Pump up to 1.2,
the Random Flow Generator
will pelt out a huge amount
of current throughout the entire tank.
We have a lot of tips for long-term care.
First off, get a piece of one eighth inch clear netting
and cut out a small rectangle,
and place it over the rear cutouts
in the rear filtration chamber.
Over the first few days,
I had to remove the filter sock
and dump out three pipe fish,
because they were small enough
to get through those cutouts.
Next up, test for nitrates and phosphates
every two to three days for the first few weeks.
The nitrate, but especially the phosphate
will likely spike quickly during the initial few weeks
due to the heavy feeding.
Add a small amount of GFO as needed
to keep your phosphates in a range
somewhere between 0.05 and 0.1 parts per million.
Be sure to always run activated carbon in this tank
and change it out once a week during your water changes,
because it will make both the gorgonians
and the sponges a lot happier.
I know it's super tempting and I get lazy sometimes too,
but don't skip your weekly water changes
for this Caribbean garden tank.
Yes, it does have a lot of filter feeders and macro algae,
which will help take up those nutrients.
But your gorgonians will just do a lot better
with a weekly 10 to 20% water change.
This tank has a wide variety of inhabitants
that will require some diverse feeding.
Firstly, the fish, especially the gobies and the pipe fish
have really small mouths
and thus will require really small food.
I'm feeding a mix of small size pellets
from TDO Chroma Boost, chopped up frozen hikari miso shrimp,
chopped up hikari spirulina brine shrimp,
live fresh baby brine shrimp
that I raised at home with the brine shrimp hatchery
and BRS premium eggs,
as well as freeze dried calanus and rotifers.
For the NPS finger gorgonian, sponges, scallops,
cucumbers and porcelain crabs, I'm dosing daily
with Algae Barnes, Ocean Magic live phytoplankton
and supplementing with some coral food like reef chili.
It's easy to see how quickly your nutrients can spike
with all this food.
Other than that long term,
just keep your gorgonians away from each other
and trim back your macro algae as needed.
This is hands down the most stunning tank
I have ever created.
The unusual mix of livestock
is just something we don't often see in this hobby.
Sometimes, the usual mix reef tank
is the perfect build for you,
but why not try something out there, something unique
that will really impress your friends and family.
For another unusual and inspiring build,
check out the Softy Tank we created.
And as always, everyone, thanks for watching.
Happy reefing. Be well.
We'll see you next time.
(Caribbean music)